North Korea to Join Olympics in Pyeongchang

North and South Korea held their first major joint talk in two years, with North Korea agreeing to reopen a military hotline and sending delegates to Pyeongchang for the 2018 Winter Olympics. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a push for renewed ties with South Korean leadership, following a year of heightened tensions from North Korea with the rest of the world over its expanding nuclear and missile programs. (Published Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2018)

The rival Koreas have agreed Saturday that their talks next week will address a North Korean art troupe's visit to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in the South, rather than the participation of the nation's athletes.

Pyongyang wanted talks on sending its athletes and other officials to the February Olympics to be held at a later date so that next Monday's talks can focus primarily on the North Korean art troupe's participation in the Games, Seoul's Unification Ministry said. The South agreed to the North's proposal, the ministry said.

Officials from the rival Koreas met earlier this week in the border village of Panmunjom, their first talks in more than two years. At that meeting, they agreed to hold military talks and send a North Korean delegation of officials, athletes, cheerleaders, journalists and others to the Olympics.

Seoul's delegation to next Monday's meeting at the border village of Panmunjom will be an official from its culture ministry, the head of the Korean Symphony Orchestra and its art director and an official from Unification Ministry, the ministry said.

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They will meet a delegation from Pyongyang headed by the director of the arts and performance bureau of the North's culture ministry. A conductor and two other officials from a North Korean orchestra will also be part of the delegation.

Seoul's Unification Ministry said it asked Pyongyang to promptly respond on when further talks can be held to discuss details of sending North Korean athletes and other officials to Games.

Separately, the International Olympic Committee has proposed a meeting on Jan. 20 at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, involving the rival Koreas to discuss North Korea's participation in Pyeongchang.